The Person Who Speaks

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount: Its Uniqueness and Purpose

0:02 May I return again this morning to further our studies in what we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount.

0:13 This unique sermon, as we saw last week, recorded in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7, unique in its length, the longest recorded discourse of the Lord Jesus, unique in its position, coming at the very outset of the Gospel of Matthew, standing as sort of a pivotal point between the old and the new, unique in its subject matter, covering such a tremendous breadth of truth. And as we approach its study, we saw last week we are doing so for a two-fold reason.

0:55 The commission of our Lord Jesus commands us to do so. For our Lord commanded, that in making disciples we were to teach them all things whatsoever He commanded us. This being one of the greatest collections of the commands of Christ, we cannot be obedient to His commission and neglect a thoughtful, prayerful study of this marvelous sermon. And then secondly, the condition of the Church in this hour, the Church as we know it here in America, the Evangelical Church, demands that we return to some of the basic concepts of this sermon.

The Authority of the Speaker: Jesus Christ, the Historical and Vindicated King

1:39 As we approach it, we said last week as we closed the message, that we're going to approach it with the basic conviction and assumption that the Beatitudes, those seven or eight blessings at the beginning of the sermon, are absolutely foundational to all that follows. We'll never understand what the Lord Jesus meant when He talked, when He talked about turning the right cheek, going the second mile. We'll never understood what He means, what He meant in saying, Judge not that ye be not judged, unless first of all we've come to grips with our understanding and in our experience with what He taught in these sayings that we call the Beatitudes. Now we move this morning to chapter 5 and verse 1, to consider these two things. Now we move this morning to chapter 5 and verse 1, these several introductory verses, and then if we have time, we'll take sort of a synoptic view of the Beatitudes, something that is common to all of them before we consider them one by one in the course of our pulpit ministry here. And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain, and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him,

3:03 and He opened His mouth and talked and said, You'll notice in this brief statement four references to the Lord Jesus. He went up to a mountain, He was set, they came to Him, He opened His mouth. And it seems that the Spirit of God would confront us at the very outset of our study with a fresh realization, first of all, of who it is that spoke these words. And so we want to consider for a few minutes, Him who spoke these words, who is the one who uttered these Beatitudes, these Blessings? Should we give much credence to the one who pronounces blessing upon those who mourn? Who pronounces blessing upon those who are persecuted? Should we give much weight to the words of one who says that God is not too much concerned or primarily concerned with the external acts of the world?

4:11 Or the act of worship, but with the motives that prompt our worship? How much attention should we pay to the one who speaks? The very outset, God will remind us that He who speaks is his own beloved Son. He is the historical Christ of the Scriptures.

4:32 You say, pastor, that's obvious to everyone. Well increasingly so, it's not obvious to a lot of people. They would make us, try to make us believe that Christ is the Son of God. is a concept, whether it was an actual person who actually lived and actually walked and talked, as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us, they say that's of little importance.

4:54 It's the Christ who comes forth from the Scriptures as an impress upon our spirit. This is the important Christ. No, we know of no such Christ. The Christ with whom we have to do is the Christ of history, who actually was born in a stable in a place in Palestine, who actually walked on dusty roads and had his feet made dirty with the dust of those roads, a Christ who in actual physical form at a certain time bled and died and was raised from the dead by the power and glory of the Father. And this Christ who spoke was the historical Christ, one who could be seen. He was seen and heard and touched and felt, one who could be followed. But he is above this, the vindicated Christ, for we cannot understand where this multitude came from and what the Lord Jesus is trying to get through to them until we first of all read back a few verses in chapter 4, verse 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

6:08 And healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torment, and those that were possessed with devils and those that were lunatics, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people, and then it mentions the places. Now, do you see how this Christ did tremendous weight to the first two verses of chapter 5? When he went up into the mountain, his disciples came to him, and when he was set, he opened his mouth, and then he makes some tremendous statements. Ye have heard that I say. Ye have heard that it was said that I say. Who is this Christ? Not only the historical person of Jesus Christ

7:06 of Nazareth. Not only the historical Christ of Nazareth. Not only the historical person of Jesus Christ but the vindicated Christ. He is the Christ whose work and whose deeds gave credence and authority to his word. This is what Peter meant when he said in the introduction to one of his sermons as recorded in the book of Acts, a man of God approved among you by what? Signs and wonders and mighty deeds. So that when the Lord Jesus came up to this mountain to speak. Those who sat at his feet were compelled to listen. Whether they obeyed or not was another sin. He warns them about that at the end, talking about those who hear and do not are like the foolish who build upon the sand. But they were compelled to listen. Why? For

7:59 before he opened his mouth, his right and his deed bore testimony that he was as no other man ever was. For he healed all that came, and he healed of all that came. And Paul wouldn't let his body and soul walk in the chat. asymptomatic brain freeze That comfort the spiritual entity in which he was hazarded from faith and salvation.

8:14 Ngrazis weakly but pigmented in time. The extravagant God for whom the Lord gives complete faith . The Lord Jesus could not remain in obscurity after his baptism in the River Jordan, after he was anointed of the Spirit. Though the Lord Jesus did not seek the multitudes nor seek fame, He could not remain an obscure person. For the tremendous spiritual power that issued from his life commanded the lowly, and so is theishops of the world. And for the construir of grace, we must proclaim? Recite the通り, for our chopped hands are worth nothing without heart, and we are a Allah? Earth is a Lord Kasrei personally Allah is God.

8:43 Appreciate and appreciate long life. ersch but let us be those of experience. États commanded the attention of the multitude. And may I just stop and sort of slip this into parentheses.

8:49 This is God's pattern of advertising in the church. The whole concept of broadening Christendom today, that before the preacher comes and before we have a chance to judge his ministry on the basis of what he is, he sends out his advanced man. And they flood the area with wonderful stories about success in other places and what a man of God he is and what a tremendous preacher. Oh, the church will send out all kinds of that.

9:18 Beloved, this is not scriptural.

9:24 Our Lord Jesus, who was the only one who had a right to send an advanced man. He had an advanced man, John the Baptist. And all he did was talk that the land is coming. The land is coming.

9:37 And when the Lord Jesus came, that life that was in obscurity for 30 years suddenly broke upon himself. And commanded the attention of the multitudes. Why? Because of the spiritual power that issued from his life.

9:54 That principle is true in the church. You let God come among this place, dear ones, and God will advertise his work.

10:03 Let God come on a man in power and that man cannot remain long in obscurity. But let the multitudes who have been confronted with spiritual power, let them be the advertisement.

10:18 Let them be the advertisement. Now I believe there's a place, if we're having special meetings, to let the public know we're having them, that the building's open and a preacher's going to be here. I'm not decrying that.

10:29 But much of this is a substitute for the reality of spiritual impact as we find it in the life of the Lord Jesus. So as it indicated Christ, who by his life and by his ministry has demonstrated the power of the kingdom, he now stands before those who've seen that power and he's going to explain, to them, the nature of that kingdom, the laws of that kingdom, the basic principles upon which men and women must operate within that kingdom. And so he speaks not only as the historical Christ, but as the vindicated Christ, whose life and ministry give authority and credence to his word. Let's keep that in mind as we study the sermon, that it's the king himself speaking, with all the power and the power of the word. With all the authority with which God has invested. Well, let's look on for a few minutes, shall we? Not only to him who spoke, but let's look for a moment at those to whom he spoke.

The Audience: Disciples and Multitudes

11:31 It says in verse 1, And see the multitude, and we come across two groups here. He went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and talked to him. Now just one reference, chapter 7. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings,

11:57 the people were astonished at his doctrine. Now you notice two groups are addressed in this sermon. The great multitudes who had been confronted with his supernatural life and ministry follow him to this place, and the Lord Jesus, seeing the multitudes, goes up into a mountain, and it says that when he's set there, ready to change, his disciples come. So it's obvious that in this sermon, our Lord Jesus has two distinct groups in mind.

12:32 He is speaking first of all to his disciples.

12:37 He says, The pastor, the disciples weren't appointed until over in chapter 10. No, that's the apostles. Out of his disciples, he took twelve, and he commissioned them to the apostles. His disciples here refers to those who had already responded to the message, to the kingdom, for we read earlier in chapter 4 that from that time forth, Jesus began preaching, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

13:04 Mark 1.15 gives a little addition. It says he preached, saying, Repent and believe the gospel, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And already, some have become identified with the Lord Jesus Christ.

13:18 With their wills, they have submitted to him. With their understanding, they have acknowledged him. As Messiah. And with their affections, they have been joined to him in a union of love and devotion.

13:33 This is what constitutes a disciple. One who is, as one servant of God has said, intellectually, volitionally, and emotionally attached to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, he's going to address his disciples. Those who had this attachment to him already have been joined to him.

13:54 And so, he's going to address his disciples. Those who had this attachment to him already have been joined to him. They were members of the kingdom. Now, what's he going to do?

14:00 He is going to systematically clarify to those who are already in the kingdom the basic standards of the kingdom into which they've come. He is going to set before them and instruct them how they are to live as members of his kingdom. This is why you find him, in the first few words that we call the Beatitudes, speaking about the kingdom of heaven. Speaking about those who are in the kingdom of heaven.

14:30 Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He talks about those, in verse 5, that shall inherit the earth. He talks about, verse 8, certain ones that shall see God.

14:42 Now, it's obvious that these people who shall inherit the earth, who are members of the kingdom of heaven, who shall see God, these are those already in the kingdom. So, he's going to clarify to them, and he's going to say, he's going to set before them what the nature of that kingdom is. Later on, he talks about how they should pray, and they're to say, Our Father. Certainly, he's not instructing unregenerate men to pray Our Father.

15:10 He's instructing his own and telling them how they are to conduct themselves as the children of God. So, as we study this sermon, those of you who, through repentance and faith and the miraculous, supernatural ways, the work of the Spirit of God, have been born into the kingdom of God and are members of that kingdom, Christ is your Savior and your King, God has much to say to you. You can come to this sermon expecting the Lord by His Spirit to instruct you as to the nature of that kingdom in which you already are. To more fully instruct you as to the standards of that kingdom.

15:52 How you and I are to act and conduct ourselves as those who are in the kingdom of God. As those who belong to the kingdom of God. But that's not the only group with which he dealt and to whom he spoke. For we read in verse 1 and seeing the multitudes who went up into a mountain and verse 28 of chapter 7 says that the people, the multitudes, were astonished at his fame.

16:18 Now, has that ever made up a religious crowd today? Made up that crowd then? Whenever you've got a big crowd, say like the crowds that come to Billy Graham's meetings. Or they come to some other well-known evangelist meetings.

16:31 Whenever you've got a religious crowd, you've always got basically four or five different groups of people. You have those that are just curiosity seekers. Those who've heard something big is going on and light the fire that tracks the crowd. You want to know what the crowd's there for?

16:47 They're just there because the crowd's there. Then I'm sure you have others who are genuinely interested and concerned. Perhaps they've heard of Jesus of Nazareth. They've heard that he's healed the sick and he's opened the eyes of the blind and that he's raised the dead.

17:03 And in their hearts they think, well, I've been wanting reality. Maybe I'll find reality here. We call them honest seekers. They were coming, hoping to find some real answers.

17:15 So you had curiosity seekers. Then you had honest seekers. Then perhaps you just had those who liked some excitement. There are some people who like excitement wherever they can get it.

17:24 Football game, a good, a wrought-up religious, meaning they just like excitement. They sort of live on excitement. Maybe that's some that, those are some that comprise the crowd. But here was this great indiscriminate crowd of people and the Lord Jesus had something to say to them.

Jesus' Message to the Multitudes: Clarifying the Kingdom and Warning the Indifferent

17:41 And he has something to say to them in this sermon. Now what was he trying to say to that crowd? Well, the greater portion of that crowd was made up of Jews. And he wanted, first of all, to clarify to them the true nature of his kingdom.

17:58 The Jews had greatly misrepresented and distorted their concept of the kingdom. They thought of the kingdom of God purely in its physical, earthly, materialistic sense. They were expecting a Messiah who would come and in mighty power and in glorious demonstration of physical might would take them out from underneath the heel of the Roman Empire. And what does the Lord Jesus do at the very annunciation of one whose kingdom is life?

18:27 Listen to his words. Blessed are the poor and blessed those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed the unsatisfied, the hungering, the thirsting.

18:45 And you see what this would immediately do to these great hosts of Jews who thought of the kingdom as coming in might and pomp and in glory and they, the Jews, the chosen race, putting under their heel the others. The Lord Jesus was correct in their misunderstanding of the nature of this kingdom that it was not primarily and essentially a physical kingdom but it was a spiritual kingdom. May I say that God wants to do the same thing for us? I'm sure in a group this size and this is why I never assumed that in any public gathering everyone's a Christian.

19:24 You will never hear me pray, Lord, if perchance there should be one here who's not saved. I'm convinced there are some here who are not saved. And further, other than that, I'm convinced there are some here who completely misunderstand the nature of the kingdom of God.

19:40 Oh, sure, you're not like the Jew in that you expect Christianity to be some kind of a big political system. But you're like the Jew in that your concept of Christianity is in terms of external. A Christian is one who's gone to an altar, who carries a Bible, who says his prayers, and the Lord Jesus wants to get through all that and show you that the nature of the kingdom is not to be found essentially in external activity, but it's found in what God does in the realm of the heart. Poverty of spirit, meekness, hungering and thirsting, purity of heart.

20:21 And so as the Lord Jesus spoke then to the multitude to clarify the nature of the kingdom, so he would speak to us as we go through this sermon together. Then he had a second reason, for I'm sure in that group there were those who were indifferent. Those who took lightly the whole matter of the kingdom of heaven. They weren't even concerned enough about the kingdom of heaven to be thinking whether it's external or internal.

20:49 Whether it's going to be a physical earthly kingdom or basically a spiritual kingdom. It just didn't even enter their minds. They were indifferent. They were terrible.

20:57 And we find in this sermon clear indication that the Lord Jesus was ministering to people like that. That's why he said in verse 18 or 19 of chapter 5. Listen to his words. Verse 18.

21:13 Verse 20, I'm sorry. That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. He's talking to people whom he knows have never entered. And he picks out the people that were the epitome of spirituality in his day.

21:33 If we were putting it in our day, it would be as though the Lord Jesus said, and except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the preachers, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven.

21:44 The people would have been startled by that. For the scribes and the Pharisees were the very essence of external orthodox religion. The Lord Jesus seeking to wound the conscience and disturb them. We find a little bit later he says, ye have heard that it was said, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you, whoso looketh to lust hath committed adultery, and then he goes on to say, if contemplating this, you find that a member of your body is a constant occasion of stumbling, he says, cut it off and cast it from you.

22:18 For it's better to enter into light main than having two hands to go into hell. He knows he's talking to people who are in danger of eternal hellfire and he's seeking to warn them. Later on in chapter 7 he says, enter in at the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads you to heaven. Many there be that go in there ask because straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life.

22:45 So you can't read this sermon without coming to the conclusion that the Lord Jesus had something definite not only to say to his disciples in clarifying the nature of the kingdom, their responsibilities within the kingdom, their reactions as subjects of the kingdom, but he was clarifying to those on the outside what that kingdom was. He was setting before them the warning concerning things eternal. And I want to say as pastor this is going to be the second burden on my heart as I preach through this sermon. I long that we as God's people may be instructed as never before on what it means to be a subject of this kingdom, the Lord Jesus. That God will instruct us as to how we're conducting to conduct ourselves so that we may do what he said we're to be right in the world, cities set on the hill that fall to the earth. And I'm looking forward eagerly to what God is going to say and do in my life as I prepare for this ministry. But I want to make equally clear that there are others of you on my heart and those that will come in one Sunday perhaps and never come in again.

24:05 You're part of this religious multitude. You've never experienced the mighty supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit bringing you out of darkness into light, out of death into life, making Christ precious and eternity and its values the thing to which you give your life.

24:25 May God in his mercy be pleased to sweep away all misconceptions about true Christianity. May God be pleased to warn you that except your righteousness exceed external righteousness. You'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. May God, through this study of this sermon, be pleased to awaken you to the place where you say, oh God, I must press in to the narrow way that leads unto life and flee the broad roads that lead to destruction.

The Manner of Jesus' Speaking: Formal, Audible, Authoritative, and Instructive

24:53 So we've considered him who spoke. Briefly we've considered those to whom he spoke. And now these two verses set before us are the verses that we're going to read in this sermon. So let's begin with the first verse of this sermon.

25:07 Let's begin with the first verse of this sermon. The first verse is the manner in which he spoke. Notice. And seeing the multitude he went up into a mountain and when he was set his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them faith.

25:25 What is the manner of his speaking in this sermon? First of all it's a formal discourse. You say a formal discourse? Yes.

25:34 The little phrase and when he was set. Now we don't use that. We use the word set. We don't use that.

25:43 We say when he was seated. We don't say when the pastor was set. It's just the old language here. We say seated.

25:51 You say Pastor you stand up to preach. If you're going to be scriptural why don't you sit? Well I'd be a lot less tired at the end of the Sunday especially a Sunday like today when I've got to preach five times. I'd like to preach maybe sitting.

26:09 But this was the custom in the day in which our Lord Jesus lived. And the book of the scroll was handed to him and he stood and he read the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. He anointed me to preach the gospel. And then it says when he was set all the eyes he'd be assembled were fastened upon him.

26:32 The man who was to speak sat. And when the position of sitting was attained it was a signal that the one who sat and who had the place of a teacher would give his discourse. This is a formal discourse by the Lord Jesus. This is not one of those discourses he gives by the wayside in the milling pressing throng occasioned by a particular incident like the matter of great faith.

27:04 He would give a sermon on faith when someone pressed through and touched the hem of his garment or perhaps he heard the disciples quarreling about who the one who was going to be the one who was going to serve him or him. The man who was going to serve him was one who was going to serve him or himself. When he was one is about to give a formal discourse. And then secondly, concerning the manner of his speaking, it was not only a formal discourse, but we read, he opened his mouth. It was an audible discourse. It was one that could be heard. But some Bible student says, ah, but

28:05 pastor, don't you know that that little phrase, he opened his mouth, is just a Hebrew expression incorporated into the Greek here that's just a common word saying he began to talk? I'm not quite so sure. Look it up in your concordance. And you'll find in almost every case where this little phrase is used, and he opened his mouth, whether it's used of the Lord Jesus or one of the apostles, as you find the record in the book of Acts, there is the sense that these men spoke out clearly and they spoke with authority. This was an audible discourse.

28:43 Now, it's God's purpose, and may I speak a word to you young budding preachers here? It's God's purpose that when we're redeemed, all of our faculties should be employed in the service of Christ and be employed well to his glory. Now, God has given us certain speaking apparatus, the lips, the tongues, and all of it. And just as you're in school now, seeking to hone and sharpen your mental faculties that they might be used of God, will you learn to cultivate the God-given ability of speaking distinctly and speaking clearly so that when you speak it can be said, and he opened his mouth. I've just been terribly disturbed when I sit and try to hear someone who tries to shut his mouth and then teach me muttering instead of opening his mouth and teaching me saying it. Now, not all of you are blessed with broken microphones like some of us are, or you may not have gotten broken into your preaching ministry on a street corner like I was privileged to do, but it's amazing what you can do with just a little practice. Learn to get all this apparatus mobile and use it in the declaration of God's truth. Now, the Lord Jesus gave an audible

30:02 discourse. It's one that could be heard clearly, apparently, even by the great multitude with no microphone, no sounding board, no roof to hold the sound in, no walls to revert away. Try that sometime. Try that sometime. But our Lord Jesus gave an audible discourse distinctly and clearly so that he could be heard. Well, that's just thrown in as a little word of exhortation to all the young budding preachers here this morning. And then the third thing we find, and this is important, it was an authoritative discourse. Our Lord Jesus opened his mouth and he talked them, and it says when he was done, the multitudes were astounded for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Now, what did the scribes

30:56 teach from? Now, get this. The scribes taught from the Bible, basically. They added some other things, but basically they taught from the Bible. What was the problem? After the multitudes heard the Lord Jesus, it says they were astounded, not at his cleverness. Oh, my God, deliver any of you to whom he calls to the ministry. They were astounded at his cleverness. I wrestle with it all the time. You see a passage and you say, boy, if you could just handle this world and build that to be clever, may God crucify us to our cleverness. They weren't astounded at his cleverness. They weren't astounded at his homiletics. They weren't astounded at his rhetoric. They weren't astounded even at his gifts of the late illustration. What were they astounded at? They were astounded at his authority. What is authority in ministry? Well, I'm trying to describe it in a way that

31:49 is like trying to describe love or faith, but I believe basically it's this. Authoritated teaching and preaching is that teaching and preaching to which God by the Holy Ghost says amen to your heart. Doesn't that make sense? When I sit under the ministry that is authoritative, what am I saying? I'm saying that that ministry is such that from the time the preacher speaks or the young lady gives her lesson, I'm saying that that ministry is such that from the time she gives her lesson or the evangelist gives his message, from the time the words leave his lips and enter my heart, God has sat on those words and said amen to what the preacher said. It comes with the weight of divine approval. That's authority. To love it around, a loud voice doesn't give authority. I've seen some preachers, they knew God wasn't on them and

32:49 what they lacked in authority, they were going to make up in noise. Oh, that's a frightful thing. And so they pound and they holler and somehow it just all falls flat. Authority. God's saying amen in the hearts of our listeners to that which we proclaim. And this is the thing that astounded the people. The scribes were perhaps correct and true in what they said, but that ring of authority was gone. But not so with our Lord Jesus. And I trust as we study this, the note of his authority will be heard. It was an audible discourse. It was an authoritative discourse. And then, last of all, it was an instructive discourse.

33:58 For it says, when he was set, he opened his mouth and he talked then. Now, you will find in the scriptures, and even the first couple of chapters of Matthew, a distinction is made between teaching and preaching. It says he went about preaching, if hence ye. And then it tells us he went about teaching. Verse 23, Jesus went about all Galilee preaching in their synagogue. Now, this is a very important point. Now, this is a very important point. Now, this is a very important point. Now, this is not an arbitrary distinction. Preaching is more the authoritative declaration of God's standards to all men indiscriminately. Teaching is primarily laying before men basic concepts for their consideration that they might see them and act upon them. The two overlap. Any true preacher will teach, and any true teacher will preach. But there

34:57 is a distinction, and this is what I want you to see. BRAWLEY PAGE There's a distinction. BRAWLEY PAGE I just feel all tingly up and down. Do you respond this way?

35:36 Maybe you don't. But I know I went over to someone's house, and we don't have a TV in our home simply because I don't trust myself with one. I'm not condemning you if you do, but I wanted to see one of those World Series games, and I just watched the first one, got almost all of it. And just seeing that great crowd and seeing that ball game, suddenly I found myself all emotionally agendified, all teed up in my heart, pounding in my...

36:01 There's a tremendous psychological influence on a great crowd. Now, if ever the Lord Jesus were to capitalize on this, and if ever anyone could use it rightly, here was the time the great multitude of people had seen him healing the sick and opening the eyes of the blind and striking out the limbs of the lame and the ears of the deaf. And what could he have done?

36:23 Our Lord Jesus could have taken this crowd at this point and fed into their emotions and gotten them to do anything, but what did he do? Stop! And he sits them down, and he begins to lay truth where? Into the mind to instruct them.

36:41 This has been a great help to me.

36:46 In an unusual way in the past few weeks, God has begun to meet us here.

36:53 And one of the evidences of God's meeting with us or one of the fruits of God's meetings with us has been a renewed sense of brokenness. I wish you were here Wednesday night in prayer meeting. I wish you'd be here this Wednesday. I wish you'd come.

37:08 And God seems to be coming upon us with a spirit of brokenness. And as different ones are praying for one's faith, it's no longer this cold, calculated, peerless pain that people are breaking under the curtain of the law. And there's a rising tide in our midst of a sense in the legitimate way of the true overtones, the emotional overtones of vital Christianity, tenderness, joy, brokenness. How easy it would be to come to God.

37:39 How easy it would be to come to God. How easy it would be to come to God. How easy it would be to come to God. How easy it would be to capitalize on this and seek to feed that.

37:46 But I'm convinced that what God wants to do in the midst of that is to teach us, to teach us.

37:54 Put some doubt on the legitimate religious emotions and give doubt to it with sound, sane truth of the Word of God. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did here. And I was just thrilled as I was thinking of this and didn't realize the timing of God in all of this. Our Lord instructed us.

38:16 He instructed and awakened eager, thirsty people and fed not primarily the emotions, but He poured truth into the mind and He laid commands upon the will. Why? For the simple reason that blessing that is stable and abiding does not come in on the heels of great emotional pressure, but it comes trotting along after the heels of truth and obedience. Do we want the blessing which God has begun to bring to intensify and to continue?

38:54 Then we've got to come to the sermon of the mount and be taught by the Lord Jesus.

39:00 Oh, but you say, Pastor, how do we go back again? God is food! God is medicine! God is study!

39:06 That's right. That's right.

39:10 And any blessing you get that doesn't come in that way won't last very long and won't take you very far.

39:18 Therefore, it isn't worth pursuing.

Outline of the Sermon on the Mount: Character, Proof, and Influence

39:21 This was an instructive discourse. He taught us. He said, Pastor, what did he teach us? Well, I've only gotten halfway through and I'm not going to go the rest of the half, but you can calculate and you know you'll see here it'll quarter to one.

39:35 But may I just give you a suggestive outline and you study it and then we'll pick it up there next week. The sermon can be basically broken down into two great sections.

39:45 Verses 3 to 16, a general description of a true member of the kingdom of heaven or to shorten it, a description of the true Christian.

39:57 Then verses 17, down to the end of the sermon, you have some specific details of how that member of the kingdom of heaven is to conduct himself, what his attitudes are to be, what his concepts are to be, what his reactions are to be. So there's that general two-fold division. Verses 3 to 16, general description of the child of God. Verse 17 to the end of the sermon, specific directions concerning the kingdom.

40:25 When we come to that last section, we'll outline, we'll outline it more in detail, but if I did it this morning, you'd forget and I might forget and be embarrassed that I forgot with you. So we'll save embarrassment for both of us and leave the outline of that till later. But as we think of that first section, verses 3 to 16, there is within that section a three-fold division. Verses 3 to 10, a description of the character of a true Christian.

40:53 What is the basic character of a true subject of the kingdom of heaven?

40:59 Then verses 11 and 12 give us that character proven by the reaction of the world.

41:08 Here's the character described. That character will be proved by the reaction of the world. Verses 11 and 12 and then verses 13 to 16 when we come to this matter of being salt and light in a city set on the hill, we have the character of the Christian in relationship to society. As he stands in the midst of a goblin, he is to be light, he is to be salt, he is to be a city set on the hill.

41:37 So you have that division within the main first grouping of truth. The character of the Christian described of itself, that character proven by the reaction of the world, and then that character in its influence in the midst of the world. God willing, next week we'll take up with the attitude. I urge upon you to study them.

The Way of True Blessedness: Study and Obedience to the Beatitudes

42:00 So will we. And meditate upon them. And as you do, may God confront you with this truth and I close with this thought this morning. Jesus is describing the way of true blessedness.

42:17 That word blessed that you'll find all the way through the beatitude simply means happy. Perfectly happy. Perfectly content. Now do you want that contentment which every human heart strives for?

42:31 Every human heart by nature doesn't seek after God. This idea that men seek after God by nature, is not true. This idea that men seek after God by nature, is not scriptural. The Bible says there's none that seeketh after God.

42:38 But every human heart by nature seeks after happiness. Now do you want to be truly happy and truly blessed? Then you study the beatitudes. And Jesus says this is the way of true blessedness.

42:54 There is no other way. Do we want to be blessed as a people? Do we want to be perfectly happy? Do we want to know all that God has for us?

43:02 Then it's going to come in the way of conforming to the character trait as demonstrated in these theaters. Will you study them? Will you pray over them? Come next week expecting God.

43:14 Speak in ministry to all of our hearts together. Shall we bow together now in prayer? Our fathers, we thank thee for our Lord Jesus, and for the confidence we have that in sitting at his feet, studying his word and words, we sit before one whose life and ministry vindicated his claim. We thank thee that he was a priest, approved of thee by mighty signs and wonders.

43:58 We praise thee for him, and we ask that as we consider his very words, that thou will be our teach. And as we move into this study of the beatitudes next week, if thou dost carry and spare us all, grant our fathers that we may all thirst to know in our experience thy way of true blessedness. Thy way of true happiness. So contrary to the world's way.

44:33 So contrary to the way of our own thinking, but, Lord Jesus, thou dost know us. And we are willing to give to thee our minds, our judgments, and trust thee to teach us what true blessedness is, and then by thy Spirit to lead us into the path of true blessedness. Feel these words that we've heard today. be considered to each of our hearts, and may Jesus Christ himself be glorified in the answer to our prayers. We ask in his worthy name. Amen.

45:21 We'll stand now to be dismissed with prayer, and I remind you that we gather here again tonight, and for these services this afternoon at this penitentiary, will you pray that God will meet us and do the work that I know he wants to do in the hearts of these men. Let us stand.